Losing over a pound a week even though I only want to lose 0.5 or less

Leaz947

Hi there everyone! I started on MFP just over a month ago and since I didn't have a lot to lose then I lost it all rather quickly, I'm still not fully at my goal but I want to eat more and MFP recommends 1400 abouts for me to lose 0.5lbs a week, anyway, I eat around that amount now or slightly more and I'm still losing at least a pound and a half a week? I don't do much exercise or anything, I don't get it...Is there a reason for this? I now weigh 137 and I'm 172.5cm

janejellyroll

The calorie goals are estimates. They're accurate for a lot of people, but some people find they have to go lower or higher to get the results they want. Assuming your logging is accurate, you may be one of those people. Or you may be burning more through daily activity than your activity level accounts for. The proof is in your results, so don't be afraid to tweak your calories and go higher until you are getting the results that you want.

Leaz947

Okay, I can't be bothered editing the text so I'll continue here.
What I wanted to say is that: I want to find a calorie amount between which isn't my maintenance weight but doesn't make me lose over a pound a week, I'm on the setting of losing 0.5lbs but I'm losing 1.5 and sometimes 2 even....

benevempress

I suggest you go into the "goals" section and increase your stated activity level. For example, if you are set for sedentary, changing it to lightly active or higher will give you more calories per day and slow your rate of loss without changing the setting that says ".5 pounds per week". If you are consistently losing 1 pound MORE per week than you want to, pick whichever setting gives you about 500 more calories per day than you have now. This will still leave you with a .5 pound per week deficit.

liftorgohome

Well you're doing something right then. Keep it up!!!

janejellyroll

tjkita wrote: »

Well you're doing something right then. Keep it up!!!

OP was quite clear that s/he doesn't want to keep it up, that s/he wants to lose weight at a different pace. Losing 2 pounds a week is excessive for someone who weighs 137 pounds and it's perfectly reasonable to adjust calories to address it.

SLLRunner

benevempress wrote: »

I suggest you go into the "goals" section and increase your stated activity level. For example, if you are set for sedentary, changing it to lightly active or higher will give you more calories per day and slow your rate of loss without changing the setting that says ".5 pounds per week". If you are consistently losing 1 pound MORE per week than you want to, pick whichever setting gives you about 500 more calories per day than you have now. This will still leave you with a .5 pound per week deficit.

This. I had to do this early on as well.

Leaz947

SLLRunner wrote: »

benevempress wrote: »

I suggest you go into the "goals" section and increase your stated activity level. For example, if you are set for sedentary, changing it to lightly active or higher will give you more calories per day and slow your rate of loss without changing the setting that says ".5 pounds per week". If you are consistently losing 1 pound MORE per week than you want to, pick whichever setting gives you about 500 more calories per day than you have now. This will still leave you with a .5 pound per week deficit.

This. I had to do this early on as well.

I really am sedentary, I do about half an hour of walk a day plus maybe 20 minutes of exercises just to keep me in shape but nothing excessive.
I'll do that though, maybe I am just one of those people with a high metabolism...I hope.

Meghanebk

Sedentary really means sedentary. I do pretty much no intentional exercise except walking to and from my parking lot to work and I had to set mine to Lightly active to keep to losing 0.5 ish per week. That 30-50 minutes a day of exercise plus your normal daily activities is burning more calories than you think.

AnnPT77

Leaz947 wrote: »

SLLRunner wrote: »

benevempress wrote: »

I suggest you go into the "goals" section and increase your stated activity level. For example, if you are set for sedentary, changing it to lightly active or higher will give you more calories per day and slow your rate of loss without changing the setting that says ".5 pounds per week". If you are consistently losing 1 pound MORE per week than you want to, pick whichever setting gives you about 500 more calories per day than you have now. This will still leave you with a .5 pound per week deficit.

This. I had to do this early on as well.

I really am sedentary, I do about half an hour of walk a day plus maybe 20 minutes of exercises just to keep me in shape but nothing excessive.
I'll do that though, maybe I am just one of those people with a high metabolism...I hope.

I'm truly sedentary outside of intentional exercise (I'm retired, with sedentary hobbies), and had to set my MFP activity level at "active" (not just "lightly active") to get it to give me a calorie target while losing that was even remotely close to accurately achieving my target loss rate. And I was eating back all my exercise calories, besides.

So lie to MFP. In this case, it's OK.

Another way to look at it: To eliminate 1 pound of weekly weight loss, add 500 calories to your daily eating goal. (500 calories X 7 days = 3500 calories, which roughly equates to 1 pound of gain/loss). You can set your calorie gial manually in MFP.

If this idea worries you, add a couple hundred daily, wait a week or two to see how fast you're losing, then repeat as needed. Once you're closer to the right loss rate, add only 100 daily then wait. (I did this at the end of losing to "coast" into my accurate maintenance calories, and it worked great.)

LivingtheLeanDream

If you're losing more than you want per week just up your calories, sounds like you can eat at least 250+ cals extra a day at least.